Longtime NSP member Jed Downhill sent us this alert from Amnesty International. If you can, please take a few minutes to do this.

Amnesty International USA: TAKE ACTION NOW!

The self-imposed deadline set by President Obama for his administration to finally close the Guantanamo detention facility came and went to no avail. In fact, the Administration took steps to undermine everything the date was supposed to represent.

Pick up the phone and demand that all Guantanamo detainees be tried, charged with a crime or released!

On Friday, we told you about the Justice Department-led task force releasing appalling recommendations to continue holding nearly 50 Guantanamo detainees without charge, trial or options for legal recourse.

Thanks to the scores of you who sounded the alarm with us — using email, Twitter and other online outlets to demand real justice through a group of independent, bipartisan experts tasked with reviewing the flawed policies at Guantanamo.

The Obama administration appears to have done a complete about-face on this issue in the year its been in power. But we’re not letting them off the hook that easily.

Help us flood White House phone lines before Obamas State of the Union address remind the Obama administration that it is still obligated to uphold the rule of law! Call today, tomorrow or Wednesday between 9am and 5pm.

White House Comment Line
1-202-456-1111 (TTY/TDD 202-456-6213).

If the line is busy, please be patient. You may also call the White House switchboard on 1-202-456-1414 and ask to be connected to the comment line.

Here’s an example of what you can say on your call.

I completely disagree with the Justice Department’s recommendations to indefinitely detain Guantanamo detainees because:

• It violates both U.S. and international laws to hold people indefinitely without being tried, charged with a crime or released. And no one can be held outside of the law.
• Only an independent and bipartisan commission of experts can examine, report, and come to a fully informed, unbiased conclusion about the policies and actions related to the detention, treatment, and transfer of Guantanamo detainees
• We have yet to see any responsibility taken or accountability enforced against those individuals who authorized or supported acts of torture. Unless action is taken for these crimes, we can never truly restore credibility to our system of justice.

Your phone calls can make a big difference this week. The pressure is on Obama to rise to the expectations he set for his administration one year ago. We want to see the day very soon when justice is restored and Guantanamo is finally closed. But we’ve got to make our voices heard, so that this issue remains a top priority until we’ve seen success!

Thanks for your calls,

Njambi Good
Director, Counter Terror with Justice Campaign

All I would add to their bullets is that this is not just a question of restoring credibility to our system of justice, it’s a matter of the spiritual death of this country to engage in all the classic techniques of a frightened empire: unjust war, torture, imprisonment without trial and more.